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Lot Essay
Horses Watering is one of a series of works by Munnings that explore the relationship between horses drinking at a ford and light on water from a setting sun. Painted when the artist was nomadically wandering the Norfolk countryside with a group of ponies and a band of helpers, Horses Watering is an atmospheric and evocative record of this time.
Having spent his childhood beside water at his father's Mill at Mendham, Munnings maintained a lifelong fascination with the effects of light on water. He describes how these works were inspired: 'On grey days my subject was by the shallow edge of the mill stream where farm-horses watered. Seeing the ponies there, drinking, started me off a fresh... The water bright gold, with long, striped reflections; the white ponies mauve against the gold, the others a dark mass' (see A. J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 239).
It is likely that Munnings worked on several compositions simultaneously, altering the number of horses and groupings to explore all the artistic possiblities. Using his own horses and grooms as models gave Munnings 'endless themes... The mere sight of these ponies, coming or going gave me fresh pictures. Like a game of chess, there was no end to it' (ibid., p. 238). The white pony in the present work is Augereau, who Munnings described as 'the most picturesque of ponies - an artist's ideal' (ibid., p. 199). In Horses Watering, like many works from this period, Augereau is key focus of the composition, allowing Munnings to exploit fully the effect of the glowing sun reflecting off the water onto his coat.
Having spent his childhood beside water at his father's Mill at Mendham, Munnings maintained a lifelong fascination with the effects of light on water. He describes how these works were inspired: 'On grey days my subject was by the shallow edge of the mill stream where farm-horses watered. Seeing the ponies there, drinking, started me off a fresh... The water bright gold, with long, striped reflections; the white ponies mauve against the gold, the others a dark mass' (see A. J. Munnings, An Artist's Life, Bungay, 1950, p. 239).
It is likely that Munnings worked on several compositions simultaneously, altering the number of horses and groupings to explore all the artistic possiblities. Using his own horses and grooms as models gave Munnings 'endless themes... The mere sight of these ponies, coming or going gave me fresh pictures. Like a game of chess, there was no end to it' (ibid., p. 238). The white pony in the present work is Augereau, who Munnings described as 'the most picturesque of ponies - an artist's ideal' (ibid., p. 199). In Horses Watering, like many works from this period, Augereau is key focus of the composition, allowing Munnings to exploit fully the effect of the glowing sun reflecting off the water onto his coat.